WSSE - Vision of an integrated Solidarity Socio-Economy

July 06, 2008

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Vision of an integrated Solidarity Socio-Economy
Indicators
Fair Trade
Solidarity Finance
Social Money
Women and Economy
Societal Responsibility
International Regulations
Environmental Justice, Ecological Debt and Sustainability
A Strategic Agenda for the 21st Century

Asian Forum for Solidarity Economy
Manila (Philippines)
October 17-20, 2007

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Differently Is Not Only Possible, but Real! (Alliance 21)

Towards an integrated vision of the solidarity socio-economy in Dakar?

Alain Simon, Marcos Arruda *

[read the beginning]

We can already observe the following points:

solidarity socio-economy projects help to substantially improve the self-image of the participants. This is a fundamental aspect of the solidarity socio-economy that needs to be contrasted with the increasingly demeaning processes that most people have to submit to as part of the economic and human relations established by the dominant system;
women are in a majority in terms of project participation. This characteristic is no doubt common to the construction of solidarity-based production and distribution networks. This aspect, centering on human and social values, is typical of the feminine rather than the masculine dimension of contemporary society;
there are enormous difficulties in overcoming the socio-metabolism generated by capital [3], since we are looking at ideas and working principles that will be moulding our lifestyle and culture. An in-depth transformation of this model demands a subjective and cultural effort that will modify the way we perceive social links and organization;
the existence of technical and technological gaps as well as difficulties in terms of accessing credit. The question of access to organizations that can contribute to improving functional efficiency as well as the transformation of practices are challenges that the solidarity socio-economy is duty bound to tackle;
the relationship between workers and the state, the challenge of democratization of the state with a view to participative governance, and the transformation of the state’s role so that it orchestrates diversity whilst respecting the socio-economic and political actors of civil society are other paths of action for change that the solidarity socio-economy can take.

It is also important to mention the strong link established with the Indicators Workshop. The indicators used by the dominant model do not include important aspects of life in society, both quantitative and qualitative. It is therefore necessary to rethink these indicators in order to measure the solidarity socio-economy's progress At the heart of the matter is the question of quality of life, an element that could not be of less concern to dominant economy issues. For instance, if you break a leg, you cause the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to rise. This rise in GDP is seen as a victory and an advance by the capitalist system. However, should not certain important aspects be included in this indicator to see if, in real terms, it can assess how people as well as society as a whole are progressing in terms of well-being?

We are therefore talking about complementary aspects that we need to continue to work on up until the Dakar meeting. During the meeting, all the WSSE workshops will be able to take a cross-cutting approach to working on the elaboration of our project. The creation of preliminary tools is therefore essential if we want to give substance to the discussions and ideas produced by the meeting.

The plan conceived by the WSSE reveals its dynamism and capacity to create a concrete and living project. Based on the summary and dialogue work of the workshops, we are providing different tools for constructing and consolidating the solidarity socio-economy. We hope that the collective discussion of these summaries that will form part of the Dakar meeting will allow us to present a systemic visualization of this alternative economy’s new paradigm.

[read the beginning]

[3] See István Mészáros Beyond Capital (published in Brazil in 2002 by Boitempo Editorial under the title Para além do capital)

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